Follow Us Facebook How To Fix Buy Do More About Us Advertise Privacy Policy Careers Contact Terms of Use 2017 About, Inc. If you're thinking of going big, really big (a 55-inch or larger screen), or you like to sit really close (closer than 1.5 times the diagonal measurement), the extra resolution may make it worth the difference--as long as you have a pristine, 1080i or 1080p HD source to feed into the set. When I wrote my original article over three years ago, many 1080p TVs weren't as sharp as they claimed to be on paper. The process of converting resolution is called scaling--sometimes called upconverting or downconverting. This Panasonic 50-inch 720 plasma costs much less than the 1080p step-up model. Really, the main way to get true 1080p output--aside from hooking your PC to your HDTV--is to get a Blu-ray player (yes, HD DVD players are another potential route, but Toshiba killed HD DVD last year).

If you're just making the leap to HDTV and find the higher end sets out of your price range, you shouldn't feel bad about going with an entry-level 720p model (just getting HD programming is going to make a huge difference). Show Full Article Up Next Up Next Article How Video Resolution Works Up Next Article Are All LCD TVs HDTVs? Up Next Article TV Technology Demystified Up Next Article Review of Pioneer Elite DV-46AV DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio Player Article 1080p TVs - What You Need To Know Read Article What's the Difference Between 720p and 1080p Resolution? Read Article What's the Difference Between 1080p and 1080i? Read Article Is Digital TV The Same As HDTV? Read Article What Do TV Resolutions Mean? Read Article How Video Resolution Works Read Article Are All LCD TVs HDTVs? Read Article TV Technology Demystified Read Article Review of Pioneer Elite DV-46AV DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio Player Read Article Progressive Scan - The Foundation Of Video Processing Read Article Why NTSC and PAL Still Matter With HDTV Read Article What Kind of HDTV Should You Buy? Read Article What Does The Term 1080p Mean? Read Article What You Need to Know About HD Camcorders Before You Buy Read Article How Are Video Frame Rate and Screen Refresh Rate Different? Read Article What Video Upscaling Is And Why It Is Important In Home Theater Read . For 720p the number of pixels that make up the image is about 1 million (equivalent to 1 megapixel in a digital still camera) and about 2 million pixels for 1080p. As a result, the quality of the image you see on the screen depends on the how well the TV's video processor works - some TVs do better than others. Thank you for signing up. 720p vs 1080p - A Comparison.

.. In addition, the other characteristic 1080p and 720p share in common are that they are progressive display formats (that is where the "p" comes from). All Blu-ray disc players can be set to output 480p/720p/1080i/or 1080p via HDMI output connection.Also, when connected via HDMI, most Blu-ray Disc players automatically detect the native resolution of the TV they are connected to and will set the output resolution accordingly. These days, HDTVs with any of those three of lower resolutions are typically called "720p." Nobody wants to remember all those numbers, and "768p" doesn't really roll off the tongue. While the gap has certainly narrowed, there's still a notable difference. This will be more noticeable on incoming 1080i signals as the TVs processor only has to scale the resolution up to 1080p or down to 720p (or 768p), but also has to perform a task called "deinterlacing". It's converted to 1080p with no resolution conversion. In addition, there are some cable and satellite feeds that are sent in 1080p.